Wednesday, December 21, 2016

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS CRAP UP: Obama to Trump-Don’t overuse “executive actions”

Do as I say, not as I do. Barack Obama sat down with NPR’s Steve Inskeep for one of his final in-depth interviews as president, and decided to offer his successor a little advice. Try working with Congress, and avoid unilateral executive action, says the man who should know:

“Keep in mind, though, that my strong preference has always been to legislate when I can get legislation done,” Obama said from the Cabinet Room in the White House. “In my first two years, I wasn’t relying on executive powers, because I had big majorities in the Congress and we were able to get bills done, get bills passed. And even after we lost the majorities in Congress, I bent over backwards consistently to try to find compromise and a legislative solution to some of the big problems that we’ve got — a classic example being immigration reform, where I held off for years in taking some of the executive actions that I ultimately took in pursuit of a bipartisan solution — one that, by the way, did pass through the Senate on a bipartisan basis with our help. …

“So my suggestion to the president-elect is, you know, going through the legislative process is always better, in part because it’s harder to undo,” he said.

Ahem. I’m sure Donald Trump will take that under advisement as he sets out to undo the massive volume of rules and regulations imposed by the executive branch over the last eight years.

If readers are stunned at the chutzpah of that advice from President Penandphone, they’ll need resuscitation after hearing how Obama wants to assist Democrats after leaving office. ...